I DO NOT OWN NARUTO

Make this vote quick people! The sooner I can reach a decision the faster you can get more updates.

Pairing update:

Naruto:

Fuu - 18

Single Pringle - 11

Wow, you guys are warming up to this ship :) I might wait a while though, to see how it turns out eventually.

Sakura:

Gaara - 20

Lee - 5

Single Pringle - 6

Hot DAMN you guys love with this ship. GaaSaku begins WITH THIS CHAPTER! :)

Sasuke:

Karin - 8

Single Pringle - 9

I'll wait before I make the final decision for this guy. . .

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Sakura groaned as she heard tapping on her window. What now, it was too freaking early for this. Did the boys have a spar and one of them was lying on the ground half-dead again? Or did they figure out another threat?

"What?" she asked groggily as she opened the window, but her emerald green eyes flew open immediately when she saw half of Naruto's body soaked in blood.

"N-Naruto!" she exclaimed in shock, quickly helping him in. In the shadows, she squinted to see a figure draped across his shoulders. It seemed to be the source of the blonde's bloodstains, which relieved her greatly.

Three pairs of footsteps landed gently, and Sakura saw her brother, a guy with magneta eyes and a long stitch. . . and Gaara.

Her breath hitched in her throat but she quickly turned away, fighting her blush as she laid the wounded man on the floor and assessed his wound. Three senbon coated in poison were deeply embedded in his forearm, and it was bleeding heavily. Sakura analysed the poison to be a milder version of the one Kankuro had been suffering when she and Naruto were sent to retrieve Gaara from the Akatsuki. It was like Sasori hadn't perfected it yet. . . well that just made her job easier.

While she set about healing him, Sakura's thoughts drifted to the red-haired boy standing in her room.

Sakura would never admit it but she had always felt an attraction towards the red-haired, teal-eyed boy. He had a personality somewhat similar to Sasuke's, except kinder. Once she realized her "love" for Sasuke had been nothing more than mere sisterly love, she had found herself falling for the stoic jinchuuriki during the midst of war, and she had been devasted when he had been killed. 

"Under different circumstances. . . we might've been able to be together," she recalled him saying when she tried so desperately to prolong his life. It had given her hope back then, and it was giving her hope now, that Gaara might actually return her feelings.

Gaara, on the other hand, was also thinking about the pink-haired, green-eyed girl. Since Sasuke had restored his memory he felt something strange towards the medic. While he was mature, he was still a child and like Naruto, didn't fully understand the concept of love. But he had a feeling that was what he was feeling towards the girl that Naruto called his sister.

Gaara suddenly choked on air when he remembered what he said to her before he died. Back then, his brain hadn't been processing and his eyesight had been blurring. 'Damn,' he thought, 'I practically confessed to her. I doubt she thought of his seriously though. She was completely obsessed with that Uchiha back then.'

Sakura looked up at Gaara's face which was tight with tension. Guessing it was about the man she was healing, she sent a soft smile his way. Gaara blinked blankly at her for a moment before giving her one of his rare, albeit small, smiles.

"Saki," Naruto whispered, "you focusing? I'm sorry if it's early, but it's urgent."

Sakura blinked. She must've been spacing out. She quickly re-focused, the dimming green glow immediately lighting back up again. "No, no, I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

She smiled when she saw the concern his blue eyes that seemed to say, "I'm always worrying."

"Who is he?"

"Utakata, the Six-Tailed Slug's jinchuuriki."

"And the one with magneta eyes?"

"Yagura, the childish, idiotic Fourth Mizukage and jinchuuriki of the Three-Tailed Turtle."

"Oi!" Yagura exclaimed indignantly, lightening up the atmosphere a little.

Sakura giggled. "Well, it's a good thing you came at just the right time. Too late and he would be a goner. Too early and it would make the job too hard since the poison wouldn't have formed into visible spots."

"See Naruto? I told you that arguing had its positive side!" Yagura said proudly, making Naruto snort as Utakata rolled his eyes.

A moment later, Utakata sat up with a bit of help from Naruto. "Thanks. . . uh?" 

"Sakura," she supplied.

"Thank you, Sakura," Utakata nodded.  

"My pleasure. I'm not a medical ninja for nothing," Sakura smiled sweetly. "Come back here if it gets worse or you need any medical help, okay?"

Utakata nodded and stood up with Yagura by his side. "Will do. Naruto, can you teleport us back?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow but Yagura quickly intercepted. 

"If the council finds out we're missing, they're going to go in a frenzy and start sending out search parties," he explained. "The Mist has been quite insecure ever since I. . . yeah. Anyway, we have to get back as soon as possible so I can have more time to re-organize my village, and stop people from finding out we ever left."

Naruto nodded. "Just think of the Mizukage office and I'll teleport you there."

The two closed their eyes and Naruto sent a wave of chakra into the seals the two jinchuuriki bore, and in a grey and blue flash, the two disappeared.

"Gaara you're staying the night, I'm not teleporting you home and you are most definitely not going back to Suna on your sand. It's too late," Naruto said. His tone left no room for argument as he jumped onto the window sill with Sasuke.

"But -" Gaara tried to protest.

"You'll stay with Sakura. Don't do anything that will make me beat you into next year, and don't make yourself known if possible," Naruto instructed, giving him a death glare.

"Naru -"

"See you tomorrow!" Naruto chirped, going from dark to light all of a sudden and the two Uchiha brothers jumped out.

"Boys! You both owe me a window!" Sakura shouted.

"Yeah we got it!" they shouted back.

Gaara frowned. "What were your affinites again? Earth and Fire?"

Sakura turned to him with surprised eyes. "I'm surprised you remember that. . . yeah those are my affinities."

{A/N: I know Sakura is Earth and Water, but just ignore it}

"Hmm," Gaara hummed before sending his sand to cover the open window. "Do a Fireball Jutsu."

Seeing where he was going with it, the pinkette complied. The sand turned into glass and Gaara carefully fit it into the window.

"Thanks Gaara!" Sakura smiled, and the jinchuuriki was grateful for the cover of darkness as his normally pale face was a truly embarrassing disadvantage when he was around the medic.

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"You didn't do anything to her, right?" Naruto narrowed his eyes as Sasuke glared warningly at Gaara, daring him to say something.

Gaara raised a non-existent eyebrow at him. "You're too overprotective," he said simply.

Sakura touched her brothers' shoulders. "Now now boys, play nice. And Naruto, it was partially your fault for making him stay here. You told him to stay with me until tomorrow, and he did."

Naruto grumbled. "Fine, but you better not have tried anything."

Gaara and Sakura exchanged looks. Gaara had amusement on his face while Sakura had exasperation.

"What are you so exasperated about? " Sasuke asked within her mind. "You're super overprotective of us too. We're just looking out for you, Saki."

Sakura didn't say anything. He did have a point. If either one of them found someone she would quite possibly almost certainly interrogate them thoroughly, mentally and physically, to see if they were suited for her boys. And even then, it was quite possible she wouldn't give them her approval anyway. . .

"Sakura? Sakura are you listening?"

The pinkette jerked her head up. "G-Gaara! I'm sorry, I was thinking. What were you saying?"

"I was just saying goodbye. It's best I leave now so my siblings don't panic and start sending out search parties," Gaara montoned. "It was nice to see you again."

Gaara then turned to Naruto. "You know what to do next time, right?"

Naruto nodded affirmative. "Yeah, don't worry. I'll only call for you if we desperately need your help, or if I'm unavailable. The other jinchuuriki understand that we are only for emergency cases. They can take care of themselves."

Gaara nodded. "Good." Then his eyes started sparkling. "So, how are things going on with you and Fuu? Yagura tells me she has quite to attraction to you."

Naruto felt his face heat up. "G-Gaara!"

The redhead winked at him before flying off on a platoon of sand. "Good luck Naruto."

"I hate you."

"Don't worry, I'm sure she won't kill you. At least. . . I think."

"You THINK?! You tattled on me based on an assumption?! " Naruto shouted incredulously.

Gaara rolled his eyes. "Naruto, please stop yelling in my head, it's not nice. And don't freak out, it's not the end of the world that your secret with Fuu is exposed."

"For the last time! There is nothing going on between me and Fuu! Okay, so she gave me a kiss on the cheek before she left when I gave her the seal. I'm sure it's nothing more than just friendship."

Gaara snorted. "Keep telling yourself that."

"And you keep telling yourself that you don't like Saki." Naruto shot back.

Gaara nearly choked on air. "What the - what are you talking about? "

"See, you're getting flustered when she entered the conversation. It's quite obvious that you like her. Saki told us what you told her during the war, and as a brother I have to warn you, even if you are my friend, if you hurt her in any way - socially, mentally or physically - I will actually kill you." Naruto was dead-serious.

Gaara snorted. "Don't worry Big Daddy. There's no way I'm going to hurt her, and besides you have to wait for Saki to decide if she wants to be with me."

Naruto scoffed. "It's so easy to tell she returns your feelings."

"And it's so easy to tell that you have feelings for Fuu. You just haven't realized it yet."

Naruto was silent for a long time, and Gaara was getting slightly worried as he neared the sand dunes.

"Naruto? "

"Overprotective sister alert. Talk later," Naruto said abruptly before cutting the telepathic link.

Gaara sighed mentally as he entered his room. Short trip, but then again he was travelling on sand, and the conversation made the trip less boring and therefore it seemed less of a distance.

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Naruto sighed as he cut the link and turned to Sakura and Sasuke, who were both emitting dark auras and leaking large amounts of Killing Intent.

"Calm down you two, you're scaring people," Naruto said calmly.

The two simply grabbed his wrists and harshly dragged him to Training Ground 7, where the rest of the Leaf Legion were waiting for them. Immediately sensing that Sasuke and Sakura were in very bad moods, with Naruto at the centre of it, the other kids quickly parted to let them sit.

"Naruto. When were you going to tell us?" Sakura put her hands on her hips as she glared at her blonde brother.

"Sakura," Naruto groaned, rubbing his temples. "Nothing happened, okay? Gaara was just teasing."

"Whole truth. Now," Sasuke ordered, onyx eyes hard.

Naruto sighed. When Sasuke got like this, which very rarely happened, nothing was going to satisfy him unless he got what he want. Normally this only happened when something angered him, usually concerning either of his siblings' feelings.

"Fine. . . I simply talked to Fuu, applied the seal to her and gave her the specialized forehead protector -"

"Specialized?! " Sakura and Sasuke glared.

"Jinchuuriki specialized," Naruto clarified. "It has a kanji for their number instead of the symbol of their village. Like Gaara has one which has "one" on it for the One-Tailed Raccoon, and I have a "nine" for the Nine-Tailed Fox."

"Oh," Sakura reddened slightly as she sat back down.

"Anyways, so I gave her the forehead protector and she asked if I was going to stay. Ke quiet glaring at me like that, I didn't stay. I told Fuu that I was going home since I was really tired from travelling, stop looking at me with those eyes Saki, Kurama made sure I didn't "over-exert" myself, and then she said goodbye to me and then. . ."

"And then?" The two siblings leaned forward, eyes piercing, determined to draw out the truth.

"She. . . kissed my cheek?" Naruto said it as more of a question than a statement, unsure of what their reactions would be. He knew it wouldn't be good.

"WWWWWHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTT?!?!?!?!"

Aaaannnnnnnnddddd he was right. Their reactions were not good, in fact they were terrifying. Well, would be if you didn't know them that well. The Leaf Legion, instead of getting irked at how loud they were, were trying to stifle their laughter because Naruto was looking so unfazed.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!"

"I said -" Naruto's calm sentence was abruptly cut off by the raging she-demon.

"I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME, BUT WHY DID YOU LET HER KISS YOU?!"

"It was on the cheek!" Naruto growled. "No big deal, calm down!"

"NO BIG DEAL?! IT'S A BIG DEAL ALRIGHT UZUCHIHA! IF IT WAS YOUR FIRST KISS THEN THAT GIRL WOULD BE DEAD!" Sakura raged.

"Is it just me, or is Sakura turning into some sort of human, female form of the Kyuubi?" Hinata whispered to Neji, who chuckled lowly.

Sasuke and Naruto immediately went green. "S-Saki. . . don't bring that up. . . ever again. . ." they choked out.

"Huh?" Neji looked at them blankly.

Kiba snickered. "When we were in the Academy, Naruto and Sasuke had a stare-off. Naruto was on Sasuke's desk, and then a random guy stood up and accidentally pushed Naruto towards Sasuke. . . and that's how the two of them gained their first kiss!"

"Ever since then, Naruto has often called Sasuke "Sasgay"," Hinata giggled. "Sasuke couldn't say anything in retaliation because Naruto, at that time, was "in love" with Sakura."

Neji raised an eyebrow. "Well they had a very different relationship before. . ."

"Wasn't that obvious?" Tenten asked from her where she was lying with her head in Neji's lap. It was her usual position these days, since she was pretty much taking advantage of the fact that the Hyuuga was alive, and was practically using him as her personal pillow. Since there was no war, the weapon master had gotten quite lazy, but still trained everyday with her teammates, just not as vigorously.

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"Hey, Naruto. Trouble at Waterfall," Yagura reached within Naruto's mind.

"Huh? " Naruto's asked blankly.

"The Akatsuki, you numbskull!" Yagura mentally shouted in frustration before forcing himself to calm down. "I've sent Utakata already, and Han might be on his way as well."

"And my assistance is needed because? " By the way Naruto was responding, Yagura was pretty sure the Nine-Tails' jinchuuriki was feeling particularly lazy right now, and didn't feel like jumping up for battle.

"Don't you get it?! " Yagura felt like facepalming. Did he have to spell it out for the idiot? "FUU! "

A few seconds passed. . . then minutes. . .

"Erm. . . Naruto? " Yagura asked nervously. "You there?"

Isobu chuckled within the nervous jinchuuriki. "Don't worry about the brat, he's probably just feeling something."

"Feeling what? "

"You know how dense that boy is? He's probably wondering why he's feeling a protective feeling inside of him. Of couse, he won't know it's because he's protective. At least, not yet."

Yagura snorted. "When will that boy ever learn that he's in love? "

"Probably not for many years. . . you know how long it took for Shukaku's jinchuuriki to realize he was in love with that pink-haired girl? If we're lucky, it'll take him ten times as long."

Yagura sweatdropped. "Gaara DID take very long to realize he was in love. . . oh Kami I hope Naruto doesn't come to me for answers."

"Yagura, I'm at the Waterfall."

Yagura shot up to his feet, magneta eyes wide with surprise. "WHAT?! ALREADY?! "

"For some reason. . . I felt something strange when you mentioned Fuu. Do you know why? "

Yagura fell back into his chair with a facepalm.